Written Answers Thursday 24 November 2005

Scottish Executive

Antisocial Behaviour

Marilyn Livingstone (Kirkcaldy) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how the new legislation is assisting local authorities in taking action against instances of antisocial behaviour.

Hugh Henry: The first anniversary report launched earlier this week sets out how councils, the police and other agencies across the country are making increasing use of the new powers made available to them under the Antisocial Behaviour (Scotland) Act 2004. Alongside the legislation, we have allocated £130 million to local authorities to improve or put in place services to tackle antisocial behaviour and to promote community safety.

Audiology

Mr Bruce McFee (West of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many vacancies there are in audiology departments in the NHS Argyll and Clyde area.

Lewis Macdonald: In 2001 the Scottish Executive published NHS Audiology Services in Scotland which provides a brief summary of the various professions and specialisms in the NHS who are involved in the care of people with hearing impairment, tinnitus or balance disorders. This includes audiologists, hearing therapists, audiological scientists, educations audiologists, speech and language therapists, otologists, audiological physicians, paediatricians, clinical psychologists, vestibular scientists, counsellors, assistant technical officers, clerical and reception staff and registered hearing aid dispensers.

  Information on vacancies in NHS Scotland is published on the Scottish Health Statistics website under Workforce Statistics, at www.isdscotland.org/workforce. Section B gives details of medical staff posts in NHS Scotland. In particular, table B11 and B12 shows the whole-time equivalent (WTE) and headcount number of consultant vacancies within the audiology and ENT (otology) specialities, broken down by NHS board area. WTE adjusts headcount staff figures to take account of part-time staff. Latest available figures are at 31 March 2005.

  Vacancies for other staff groups who work within audiology departments cannot be identified because of the way in which staff are categorised in the data which is collected.

Community Care

Mrs Mary Mulligan (Linlithgow) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what progress has been made in providing respite care for people who are cared for in their own homes.

Lewis Macdonald: Audit Scotland monitoring of local authority provision shows that respite care for people who are cared for in their own homes has increased significantly in recent years. The Care 21 report published on 30 September calls for the development of a national respite strategy, and we will be responding early next year.

Concessionary Travel

Jim Mather (Highlands and Islands) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans to introduce concessionary air fares for residents of Scottish islands or social groups, such as elderly people, students, young people or disabled people, for travel between mainland Scotland and Scottish islands.

Tavish Scott: The Partnership Agreement priorities for concessionary travel are to introduce a Scotland-wide free bus scheme for older and disabled people and a scheme of concessionary travel on bus, rail and ferry for young people.

  However, as part of our commitment to reduce the cost of lifeline air links, we are currently looking at how air fares can be significantly reduced.

Crime

Margaret Jamieson (Kilmarnock and Loudoun) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what improvements are being made in dealing with violent crime in communities in Ayrshire.

Cathy Jamieson: The Police, Community Safety Partnerships and other agencies in Ayrshire are working hard together to reduce violent crime. Antisocial behaviour teams are actively dealing with youth disorder and alcohol issues. Police campus officers have also been deployed to several Ayrshire schools.

  Strathclyde Police’s Violence Reduction Unit is working closely with agencies across Ayrshire to develop local anti-violence responses and share best practice.

Education

Paul Martin (Glasgow Springburn) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what measures are in place to ensure that parents are adequately and coherently informed of all factors relating to the performance of their child’s school.

Peter Peacock: We provide parents with, or ensure they can access, information about schools in a wide variety of ways - school development plans and progress reports, school handbooks, head teachers’ annual reports on pupil attainment, Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Education inspection reports, and the two websites Parentzone and Scottish Schools Online.

Education

Mr Adam Ingram (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what progress has been made in reviewing the school curriculum in communication and language, maths and numeracy and social subjects and when it will publish drafts of revised guidance.

Peter Peacock: Small groups began the review of communication and language, maths and numeracy and social subjects in May 2005. They have been meeting since then to consider the future shape of guidance for the three to 15 curriculum, with an eye to the implications for 15 to 18. We expect to publish an overall rationale for change across the curriculum as a whole in February. This will form the basis for initial versions of revised draft guidance which will be issued later in the year.

Education

Mr Adam Ingram (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what consultation arrangements have been put in place to consider drafts of revised guidance for the school curriculum; what timetable is envisaged for the consultation, and how universities will be involved in the process.

Robert Brown: We are engaging with the teaching profession and teacher education institutions on the nature and extent of change across all curricular areas. We will begin the process of engaging more deeply in a sequenced and managed way from late January 2006. There will be opportunities for discussion, trial and iteration throughout calendar year 2006 initially on the rationale for change and later on draft guidance. All stakeholders including universities will be kept fully informed of this process and will be invited to engage fully in the debate.

Education

Mr Adam Ingram (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it is taking to ensure that Scottish history forms the core of the history syllabus in schools.

Peter Peacock: The curriculum is non-statutory. Responsibility for effective teaching rests with authorities and schools. A Curriculum for Excellence will provide a framework for young people’s learning which will enable them to develop as successful learners, confident individuals, responsible citizens, effective contributors. The curriculum review acknowledges that history has an important contribution to make to the purposes of education and it is an explicit aspiration that every young person is able to develop knowledge and understanding of the world and Scotland’s place in it.

Enterprise

Jim Mather (Highlands and Islands) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive which sectors of the economy it considers to have a skills shortage.

Allan Wilson: The information requested is given in the Futureskills Scotland publication, Skills in Scotland 2004 , which was published in January 2005. Copies of this publication are available from the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 35294).

Environment

Dr Elaine Murray (Dumfries) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether there is any threat to public health associated with the burning of timber from trees grown on land which was contaminated by caesium as a consequence of the Chernobyl disaster.

Rhona Brankin: The risk to public health due to the release of radioactive caesium from burning timber depends on both the concentration of the material in the timber and the level of exposure to combustion products. Measurements of the radionuclide concentration in woods from the West of Scotland were carried out by the National Radiological Protection Board (NRPB) in 2003 on behalf of Forest Research. The measured activity concentration of Caesium 137 was in the range two to 110 Becquerels per kilogram of undried sawdust. Interpretation of this result by the NRPB indicates that for any reasonably foreseeable scenario involving the burning of such timber, the public health consequences will be negligible.

European Union

Bruce Crawford (Mid Scotland and Fife) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will make available the overarching concordats setting out the framework for co-operation on EU policy issues, international matters, statistics and financial assistance to industry, as referred to in paragraph 3 of Concordat between the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and the Scottish Executive, 2003 .

Ms Margaret Curran: The four over-arching multilateral concordats on: the Co-ordination of European Union Policy Issues, Financial Assistance to Industry, International Relations and Statistics, are supplementary agreements to the Memorandum of Understanding, between UK Government, the Scottish Executive, the Cabinet of the National Assembly for Wales and the Northern Ireland Executive Committee.

  The Memorandum of Understanding and supplementary agreements were produced as one document. All versions of the Memorandum of Understanding have been publicly available since the first publication, in 1999. The current version is lodged in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 18798).

European Union

Bruce Crawford (Mid Scotland and Fife) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what specific discussions it has held with the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister on proposed negotiating lines for EC and international instruments, as referred to in Concordat between the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and the Scottish Executive, 2003 .

Ms Margaret Curran: The Executive is in regular contact with the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister on a wide range of issues, including the proposed negotiating lines for EC and international instruments.

Fatal Accident Inquiries

Mr John Swinney (North Tayside) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many fatal accident inquiries have been held in each year since 1990.

Cathy Jamieson: The number of fatal accident inquiries held in each year since 1990 is shown in the following table.

  

 Financial Year
 No. of Fatal Accident Inquiries Held


 1990-91
 112


 1991-92
 132


 1992-93
 131


 1993-94
 143


 1994-95
 127


 1995-96
 96


 1996-97
 133


 1997-98
 117


 1998-99
 141


 1999-2000
 80


 2000-01
 79


 2001-02
 64


 2002-03
 58


 2003-04
 55


 2004-05
 76

Ferry Services

Mr David Davidson (North East Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it stands by the statement by the then Minister for Transport on Good Morning Scotland on 10 December 2004 that "We have to make sure that, if we are forced by Europe, that we have the very best prospect possible of CalMac winning that tender", in relation to the outcome of the Clyde and Hebridean ferry tendering process.

Tavish Scott: As owners of Caledonian MacBrayne Limited, ministers want to ensure that the company can competitively tender for the contract to operate the Clyde and Hebrides ferry services. However, the company cannot, and will not, be given any favourable treatment by the Executive in the procurement process. The tendering process will be undertaken in full accordance with proper procurement procedures.

Ferry Services

Mr Kenny MacAskill (Lothians) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive which port organisations were allowed to tender or be considered for the northern isles ferry contract; whether private sector port organisations were able to tender, and what the reasons are for its position on the matter.

Tavish Scott: A Scottish Executive advertisement seeking expressions of interest from potential operators of the Northern Isles passenger and vehicle services was published in the Official Journal of the European Union on 19 April 2004 (reference number 64997-148/2004) and in the media. Expressions of interest were received from 26 organisations as set out in the answer to question S2W-18864 on 23 September 2005 , which included two port organisations Aberdeen Harbour Board and Milford Haven Port Authority, both of which are trust ports. It is a matter for the organisations involved at this stage to consider in the light of the Executive’s requirement whether they wish to express an interest, and then submit a Pre Qualification Questionnaire (PQQ) to be considered for the invitation to tender. PQQs were submitted by nine of the organisations expressing an interest. These PQQs were evaluated by the Executive and, while the details of the PQQs submitted remain commercially confidential at this stage, I announced on 19 July 2005 that three organisations had been invited to submit tenders, none of whom was a port organisation.

Further Education

Mr David Davidson (North East Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans to review the funding arrangements for further education colleges.

Nicol Stephen: The Scottish Further and Higher Education Funding Council has responsibility for allocating funds to further education colleges and promoting their efficiency and financial stability. As part of its responsibility the funding council regularly reviews funding arrangements.

Further Education

Scott Barrie (Dunfermline West) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how it will ensure that the further education sector is adequately funded.

Nicol Stephen: Annual investment in the further education sector is due to rise to around £620 million by 2007-08. This represents an increase of 45% since 2003-04 – the biggest cash increase in further education funding ever seen in Scotland.

Justice

Eleanor Scott (Highlands and Islands) (Green): To ask the Scottish Executive how many offences of environmental crime were reported to procurators fiscal during the last five years; how many resulted in prosecution, and how many secured a conviction.

Elish Angiolini QC: Environmental offences cover a wide range of statutory offences and can be reported to the Procurator Fiscal by a number of different reporting agencies. In the time available it has only been possible to collate information on cases recorded as having been reported by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency. This information indicates that in the three years to 31 March 2005, the Agency reported 320 charges to procurators fiscal. Court proceedings were initiated in respect of 267 (or 83%) of those charges. There was a plea or finding of guilt in respect of 116 charges and 40 charges remain active.

Pensions

Carolyn Leckie (Central Scotland) (SSP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-20039 by Mr Tom McCabe on 3 November 2005, how it will address any inconsistencies between the offer to local government employees in respect of the 85 Rule and the agreements reached with the public health, teaching and civil service sectors where this option has been retained for all existing pension members.

Mr Tom McCabe: The Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) already has a normal pension age (NPA) of 65, unlike the schemes for NHS, teachers and civil servants which currently have a NPA of 60. However, as explained in the answer to question S2W-20039 on 3 November 2005, the LGPS will have to be amended to remove the rule of 85 because legal advice is that the rule will not comply with European Equality legislation because of age discrimination. To comply, the rule will have to be removed from the Scheme, for existing as well as new members, by October 2006.

  The Scottish LGPS group will be discussing what degree of protection might be afforded to existing scheme members who would have qualified under the rule if it had not been removed. The discussions will continue over the next few months, with a view to agreed proposals being put to ministers by mid-2006.

Pensions

Jim Mather (Highlands and Islands) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what the average total pension incomes have been for (a) men and (b) women in each year since 1999, broken down by local authority area.

Mr Tom McCabe: The information requested is not held centrally.

People with Disabilities

Campbell Martin (West of Scotland) (Ind): To ask the Scottish Executive whether any assessment has been made of the impact on the health and general well-being of disabled people in Scotland whose mobility is severely restricted of the situation whereby, according to Motability, the waiting time for a vehicle capable of being driven from a wheelchair is 24 months or more; whether it is aware of the number of people in Scotland made virtually housebound for two years or more because of this waiting time; what measures it believes could be applied to significantly reduce the waiting time, and what representations it has made, or intends to make, on this matter.

Tavish Scott: The Executive is aware that there is a current waiting list of close to two years for applications to be processed under the Motability Scheme for the drive-from-wheelchair vehicles under the Specialised Vehicles Fund (SVF) funded by Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). At the present time there are seven people living in Scotland who are on the waiting list.

  Currently there has been no impact assessment regarding the link between restricted mobility as a result of this waiting time for a vehicle and the health and general well-being of disabled people in Scotland.

  We recognise that such extended waiting periods are not acceptable and Motability has a number of initiatives underway to address the situation including new procurement systems. A wider range of vehicles is also becoming available which should reduce waiting times for disabled drivers using SVF funding.

  Motability is working with customers to ensure that their mobility is maximised during any waiting period for example by ensuring that the lease of any current vehicle they have on the Motability Scheme can be flexibly extended until their new vehicle is available. Six of the seven customers waiting for drive-from-wheelchair vehicles in Scotland fall into this category. In other cases, Motability would try to make a suitable used vehicle or a wheelchair-accessible passenger vehicle available in the interim until the desired vehicle can be delivered.

  We will continue to support DWP in their work with Motability to reduce waiting times.

Rail Network

Dr Elaine Murray (Dumfries) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has given any further consideration to proposals for a rail halt at Beattock on the West Coast Main Line.

Tavish Scott: The proposal for a rail halt on West Coast Main Line was included in Dumfries and Galloway Council’s West Coast Main Line local services study. The Scottish Executive responded to the Council with comments on the study on 30 June 2005. A copy of the Executive’s response is held in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 37720).

Roads

Brian Adam (Aberdeen North) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-20352 by Tavish Scott on 14 November 2005, when the Minister for Transport and Telecommunications expects to receive a full analysis of all available information in respect of the route of the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route.

Tavish Scott: I am currently considering all of the information provided to me and I hope to announce a decision very soon.

Scottish Commissioner for Human Rights Bill

Ms Rosemary Byrne (South of Scotland) (SSP): To ask the Scottish Executive how it will ensure that people with a communication impairment benefit equally from the provisions of the Scottish Commissioner for Human Rights Bill.

Robert Brown: The Scottish Executive is committed to equality for disabled people. The proposed Scottish Commissioner for Human Rights would have a general duty to promote awareness of, and respect for, human rights. The commissioner would be able to provide information, advice and guidance on human rights issues and to provide education or training. The commissioner would also, in certain circumstances, have the power to conduct inquiries, including taking oral and documentary evidence, and would be required to publish the resulting reports in addition to publishing annual reports of its activities.

  The commissioner would be subject to the Disability Discrimination Act, which would place obligations on the commissioner to take a proactive approach to equality of opportunity for disabled people, including those with a communication impairment, in respect of all of these functions.

Scottish Criminal Records Office

Alex Neil (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-20010 by Colin Boyd QC on 7 November 2005, whether the reason for the answer not providing information relating to the names of the fingerprint experts involved in expert examination related to the Lockerbie investigation is that the Executive (a) does not know or (b) is unwilling to provide the names or whether it is because no person from the Scottish Criminal Records Office or other Scottish fingerprint bureau was involved.

Colin Boyd QC: No fingerprint examination work was carried out by the Scottish Criminal Records Office in connection with the Lockerbie investigation.

  The answer to question S2W-20010 referred to officers from Lothian and Borders Police who carried out fingerprint examinations in 1991 and 1992 and were cited as witnesses in the Lockerbie trial. The officers referred to were Detective Sergeant William Thomson, Detective Inspector Ian Kemp and Detective Inspector Murdo Murray.

Scottish Criminal Records Office

Alex Neil (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-20013 by Colin Boyd QC on 7 November 2005, whether the reason for the answer not providing information relating to the names of the fingerprint experts cited as witnesses at the Lockerbie trial or precognosced in this connection is that the Executive (a) does not know or (b) is unwilling to provide the names.

Colin Boyd QC: I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-20558 on 24 November 2005. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search .

Scottish Executive Publications

Derek Brownlee (South of Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what the costs were of publishing, printing, distributing and launching One Scotland - One Geography .

Mr Tom McCabe: The total cost incurred to date in publishing, printing, distributing and launching One Scotland – One Geography on the Scottish Executive website is £618.38. If it is agreed that printed copies of the strategy be produced for public dissemination an estimated additional cost of £1,800.00 will be incurred.

Statistics

Mr Stewart Maxwell (West of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans to publish a statistical database for Scotland similar to Statistics Sweden or Statistics Norway and, if so, when such a database will be published and, if not, what the reasons are for its position on the matter.

Mr Tom McCabe: The Scottish Executive is currently in the process of scoping out a series of improvements, to be implemented to the statistics topic of the internet site, aimed at improving the usability and accessibility of statistics in Scotland. A usability study of the site has recently been completed and the results of this are being used to inform enhancements. One finding of the study was that, when the Scottish Executive statistics site was compared with a selection of sites of other statistical agencies, most study participants preferred the Executive statistics internet site overall.

  Initial improvements to the site will be implemented early in 2006 and longer term consideration will also be given to further improvement of accessibility to statistics.

  The Executive does currently publish some database facilities accessible from the statistics topic of its internet site. The Scottish Neighbourhood Statistics site, which focuses on small area statistics, is accessible from the front page of the statistics internet site and other databases, for example, Scottish Environment Statistics Online, are available within the relevant topic areas i.e. environment. Links to these databases are shown below:

  Scottish Neighbourhood Statistics, http://www.sns.gov.uk/.

  Scottish Environment Statistics Online, http://www.scotland.gov.uk/stats/envonline/menu0.asp

  These databases share many similar features to the databases on Statistics Norway and Statistics Sweden internet sites, including selection of variables and access to time series information. The Executive intends to implement improvements to these existing databases and extend their use across more topic areas. However, it has not yet been decided whether the Executive will implement an integrated database for all Scotland statistics like that shown on the Statistics Sweden and Statistics Norway sites. User preference will be considered in all future developments.

Water Charges

Dr Elaine Murray (Dumfries) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive why water charges are based on the 1999 rateable value of business properties rather than the most recent evaluation.

Rhona Brankin: In response to the views expressed in the public consultation Paying for Water Services , the Scottish Executive announced to the Parliament in February 2005 its intention to end the link between rateable values and charging non-domestic customers for water and sewerage services. It will consult on detailed proposals for a new charging regime prior to the regime’s implementation in 2010.

  In the meantime, the current basis for charging un-metered non-domestic premises by reference to the rateable values that were in place in March 2000 will remain in place for the next four years. This approach is intended to ensure as little disruption as possible to the charging regime before the major changes planned for 2010.

Water Charges

Dr Elaine Murray (Dumfries) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether a business which does not have a water supply should be charged water charges based on the rateable value of the property, in addition to waste water and drainage charges.

Rhona Brankin: The details of individual customers’ charges for water and sewerage services is a matter for the customer and Scottish Water in the first instance. Customers with concerns about their charges should draw these concerns to Scottish Water.